Jonathan Pryce and Aidan Gillen lead the cast of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross at the Apollo this autumn, directed by James Macdonald. The play opens on 10 October (previews from 27 September) and is booking until 12 January.
Glengarry Glen Ross is set in an office of cut-throat Chicago salesmen. Pitched in competition against each other they will do anything, legal or otherwise, to sell the most real estate. In this world of high stakes and hard sell, the mantra is simple: close the deal and you’ve won a Cadillac; blow the deal and you’re f***ed.
Mamet’s play premiered at the National in 1983, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play that year. Mamet subsequently wrote the screenplay for the 1992 film adaptation, in which Pryce also appeared (as James Lingk) in a cast including Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin. Glengarry Glen Ross was last seen in London at the Donmar Warehouse in 1994.
In this new stage production Pryce plays Shelly Levene. The actor has had a long and acclaimed career on the London stage across drama and musicals. His drama credits include the lead role in Edward Albee’s The Goat Or Who Is Sylvia? at the Almeida and the Apollo in 2003/04, A Reckoning for the Soho in 2003, and, further back, Hamlet at the Royal Court, for which he won a Best Actor in a Revival Laurence Olivier Award in 1980.
In musicals Pryce has starred in Olivier! at the London Palladium, Miss Saigon at Drury Lane and My Fair Lady at the National and Drury Lane, which earned him a 2002 Laurence Olivier Award nomination for his portrayal of Professor Higgins. Last year he starred on Broadway in the musical comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. His film credits include Evita (as Juan Peron to Madonna’s Eva), Carrington, Tomorrow Never Dies, De-Lovely and the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy.
Gillen plays Richard Roma. The Irish actor’s London theatre work includes Platonov, The Tempest and Playboy Of The Western World for the Almeida, Mojo for the Royal Court and Marvin’s Room for the Hampstead. In 2003 he played Mick to Patrick Stewart’s Davies in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker on Broadway, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Gillen is also well known for his screen work including the C4 series Queer As Folk.
Director Macdonald has worked extensively in London at the Royal Court, the National, and the Almeida. His most recent directorial credits include Caryl Churchill’s Drunk Enough To Say I Love You? at the Royal Court and James Joyce’s Exiles at the National, both last year.
Mamet’s other plays include Oleanna, American Buffalo, A Life In The Theatre, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Speed-The-Plow (being revived at the Old Vic in 2008 starring Kevin Spacey) and Romance.
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